According to the Los Angeles Times, the new owners of Miramax are looking at possibly bringing the company's film library to YouTube for online distribution. This sounds like it could be a genuine forward leap in Google's desire to compete with other online video distributors if it comes to fruition. The article also points out that previous Miramax deals with cable networks like Starz could complicate an arrangement with YouTube, so it would be a major coup for YouTube to enter paid streaming if they were able to wrangle the rights for a major film like Pulp Fiction.
I find the term "online distribution" rather ironic. In a world where information should be free and open-ended, without boundaries, logically it should come to mean that more people see these movies all over the world. Instead, the reality is that content is geolocked most of the time, and only available to US Citizens. So, I feel that online distribution is actually more limited than actual physical distribution. What anyone else sees is likely "Content Not Available in Your Area". Rather frustrating. It's one of those limitations that I hope we end up fixing in the future.